Finally! Nearly 100 years after women received the right to vote (1920), a woman’s face will claim one of our paper currency bills. For the FIRST time?since the 1800’s.
Women In Action?
I applaud this accomplishment. An amazing nine-year-old girl from Massachusetts wrote a letter to President Obama last year asking why women didn’t have bills with their faces on it.? That letter got her invited to the White House and the idea a lot attention.
Since then the campaign to put a woman?on the $20 bill has gone viral. The?W20?movement asked which woman should replace Andrew Jackson. Over half a million online voters, and W20’s winner is?abolitionist?Harriet Tubman?who said,
?Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.?
It takes an Act of Congress to change our money. So we have?Representative Luis Guti?rrez, a Democrat, to thank for introducing a bill calling for a woman’s face on the $20 bill.
AND THE WINNER IS $10 Bill
But the Treasury Department?announced this week the new $10 bill will feature a woman.
A new $10 bill will issued by 2020. Pocahontas was on a $20 note in 1865, and Martha Washington was on a $1 silver note in 1896. I am appalled it has taken this long for us to make our way to that most precious and most-handled symbol in our culture again.
And why the $10 bill? I think we deserve the $100 bill just for waiting 100 years. Of course she could have landed the $2 gig, I suppose. President Thomas Jefferson lived there for a while. And 627 million $10 notes are printed each year, which gives the mystery woman lots of face time.
Dead On $$$
Ten-dollar Hamilton is an historical figure in our history but never a president. Ah hah! It turns out that you don’t have to be a president to catch one of those lucky spots.? You just have to be one of our top leaders ? and dead.
Benjamin Franklin?lives on the $100 bill. He was an infamous inventor, a founding father, dispenser of wisdom, and U.S. envoy. But Franklin was never president.
This yet-to-be- named woman will not be traveling alone. Alexander Hamilton jumped on the $10 bill in 1914, and he will move over ? but not off of the bill. The Treasury Department also indicated that his likeness will still show up somewhere on the currency he has long dominated.
Man Decides On Woman
So who selects which woman moves onto U.S. currency? A man. That Act of Congress told Lew to put together a special commission to ask for suggestions and make recommendations.
But later this year.,
?In exercising his responsibility to select currency features and design, Treasury Secretary Lew will select a notable woman ? with a focus on celebrating a champion for our inclusive democracy.?
Really?
